About Thea
My Story
I was born in Groningen, the Netherlands on 16 April 1954 and was four months old when we immigrated to South Africa.
I grew up in Vereeniging, Gauteng, where I went to school, firstly, at the Unitas Park Primary School and the went to high school at Vereeniging High.
For my tertiary education, I went to Potchefstroom University where I studied for and achieved a B.Commerce degree.
I worked at ISCOR (Iron & Steel Corporation) in Vanderbijlpark as a Cost Accountant, which is where I met my first husband, Piet Strydom. We got married in Vereeniging in 1977.
We then moved to Stilforntein, Orkney and Klerksdorp in the then Western Transvaal,(now Northwest Province), where Piet worked on the mines in Human Rresources and I worked as a Business Auditor for the Department of Inland Revenue in Klerksdorp.
We moved to back Vereeniging to take over my parents Poultry Farm, Jan Tromp Poultry, in early 1981. voluptatem.
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My son, Jay, was born in Vereeniging in 1981 and daughter, Fiona, was born in Vereeniging in 1984.
We farmed there for 15 years between 1981 and 1996. My husband, Piet Strydom, died in August 1996 as a result of a murder attack on our farm, Strydom Poultry Farm. I was the Business owner of Strydom Poultry.
In April 1997 my children and I immigrated to New Zealand.
I did some upskill courses in accounting, NZQA Computer studies, and NZQA Elderly care when I arrived, and worked at Auckland City Council for a couple of years.
I got Remarried to Jan van der Merwe in 2006 and moved to Warkworth. I started to work at Warkworth Hospital in Elderly care and worked there for 11 years. I then worked with people with disabilities at Life Homes for five years . Currently, I work as a support worker for Quality Care network.
Jan died on 4 October 2014 after he had a massive heart attack while we were biking the “Alps to Ocean” Bike trail from Lake Ohau to Omarama in the South Island.
I was involved in the Homicide Survivors’ Support Group (Victim Support) and am the organist at several churches. I currently volunteer at the Heartbeat Christian Bookshop in Warkworth, as well as at the Funclub for people with disabilities.
I love writing, especially poetry, and am working on a book of poetry, which hopefully will be published very soon. I am a member of the Warkworth Writing Group.